Young hitchhikers shot, dumped near Breckenridge

The bootie was a mystery until six months later, when Annette Schnee’s body was found face-down in Sacramento Creek south of Alma, about 10 miles south of Oberholtzer’s body. Schnee was wearing the mate to the orange bootie.

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A backpack belonging to Schnee had been found near Oberholtzer’s body.

Hoosier Pass has long been a commuting route for those living in Park County with jobs in Summit County. Both women who were killed had jobs and homes near the pass.

Annette Schnee

Oberholtzer, who was married to one-time suspect Jeff Oberholtzer, was last seen on Jan. 6, 1982, after leaving Village Pub in Breckenridge at 7:50 p.m. It was a cold Wednesday night, with temperatures dropping to 20 below zero.

Bobbie Jo had celebrated at the pub after she was promoted to office manager at a business in the same strip mall.

Witnesses then saw her alone near the Minit Mart, about 100 yards from the pub entrance, hitchhiking southbound out of town.

Evidence indicated that she had fought her way out of a car parked at Hoosier Pass, causing her attacker to bleed.

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“It appears she popped him in the nose,” said Charlie McCormick, a member of the 11th Judicial District homicide task force investigating the murders.

Her husband, Jeff, found Oberholtzer’s right wool glove, stained with blood, on U.S. 285.

Summit County Sheriff’s Department crime map

It was one of the reasons he was initially a suspect, McCormick said.

Oberholtzer apparently ran 300 feet downhill before she was fatally shot in the chest with a Winchester hollow-point bullet. Her tracks show hesitation and backtracking near the spot where she was shot in the back from a distance of only a foot or two.

Oberholtzer staggered and tried to climb out of the snow bank after she was shot, McCormick said.

“She collapsed on her back and froze or bled to death,” he said. “It’s difficult to tell.”

Plastic ties were found on her wrist, indicating someone had tried to bind her.

Without meaning to sound glib, I would love to be a homicide detective working cases like this. Wish we could know everything the police do, but it is understandable and right that they withhold key facts. As many know, these murders were featured years ago on the TV program “Unsolved Mysteries”. What’s interesting, however, are the details that UM (I assume) reported inacccurately (a number of little discrepancies that I won’t here enumerate).

Sure hope one day this crime is solved. If such does not happen in this life, the killer’s judgment is assured in the world to come.

Jonathan

Without meaning to sound glib, I would love to be a homicide detective working cases like this. Wish we could know everything the police do, but it is understandable and right that they withhold key facts. As many know, these murders were featured years ago on the TV program “Unsolved Mysteries”. What’s interesting, however, are the details that UM (I assume) reported inacccurately (a number of little discrepancies that I won’t here enumerate).

Sure hope one day this crime is solved. If such does not happen in this life, the killer’s judgment is assured in the world to come.

Kathy

I have a loved one that disappeared in 1982. He is one of the missing (presumed dead) men whose ID (and credit cards) were found in Tracy Petrocelli’s possesion in NV. His gas credit cards were used in Petrocelli’s travels thought out Calif, NV, Utah, CO, MO, OK, KS and TX. Tracy is a sociopath who is STILL ALIVE on death row in NV…26 years after the fact. Where is the justice for the many victims? He refused all attempts by law enforecement to acknowledge his victims. We have never found the body, althought I have been told there was a dumping ground in remote Utah for many of his victims. I know justice will come after Petrocelli meets his maker.

Kathy

I have a loved one that disappeared in 1982. He is one of the missing (presumed dead) men whose ID (and credit cards) were found in Tracy Petrocelli’s possesion in NV. His gas credit cards were used in Petrocelli’s travels thought out Calif, NV, Utah, CO, MO, OK, KS and TX. Tracy is a sociopath who is STILL ALIVE on death row in NV…26 years after the fact. Where is the justice for the many victims? He refused all attempts by law enforecement to acknowledge his victims. We have never found the body, althought I have been told there was a dumping ground in remote Utah for many of his victims. I know justice will come after Petrocelli meets his maker.

Anonymous

Annette was a great friend of mine. She was my homecoming date my junior year and my prom date my senior year in Sioux City, Iowa in 1978.

I’ve thought often of her – especially every time I drive over the Hoosier Pass. The pain of her loss has lessened but I will never forget the time I spent with her and her beautiful smile.

It’s been years since I’ve spoken with her mother Eileen. I don’t even know for sure if she’s still alive. If she is, I hope that before she dies, we come to know the identity of the one whose value for life was so diminished that he took hers on a cold night in the mountains in 1982.

Anonymous

Annette was a great friend of mine. She was my homecoming date my junior year and my prom date my senior year in Sioux City, Iowa in 1978.

I’ve thought often of her – especially every time I drive over the Hoosier Pass. The pain of her loss has lessened but I will never forget the time I spent with her and her beautiful smile.

It’s been years since I’ve spoken with her mother Eileen. I don’t even know for sure if she’s still alive. If she is, I hope that before she dies, we come to know the identity of the one whose value for life was so diminished that he took hers on a cold night in the mountains in 1982.

Anonymous

I am sorry about your loses. I cannot imagine the pain. I am pained reading the stories. The reason for my interest is that my aunt wanted me to sign a petition to help fee Petrocelli because he was unjustly accused of a crime he did not commit. I am just shocked that this monster is still alive. How can anyone who commits murder in front of several people then turn around and proclaim innocence! I say lets not waste anymore tax dollars on keeping him alive. His sentence should be hurried and carried through already.

e.w.

You were going to sign a petition, Why? Nobody should try to help a death row inmate unless you were at there trial. He killed my Father and many others no doubt. E.W. Let him loose so I can give him justice. My Father Would not sleep with this maggot alive if it were me he killed. E.W.

Anonymous

What a horrible story! Here’s hoping that the guys who shot and killed those women so callously are doing life in a federal penitentiary, with no parole.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.